Hey guys, it’s Julie from Sleeknote If you’re like most e-commerce marketers, email marketing is an essential part of your business. But as effective as email marketing is, it’s not enough on its own. In fact, 44% of marketers say increasing engagement rates is their number one challenge. Mail the right emails at the wrong time to the wrong prospect, and people will opt out of your emails (or worse, move to a competitor). But, if you send the right emails at the right time to the right prospects, you’ll create lifelong loyal brand advocates for your business. Now who doesn’t want that? I know you do! So now is the time to take notes, cause I’ll tell you how. The three most important types of emails you should be sending are 1.welcome emails 2.Trigger emails 3.Retention emails So, let’s start from the beginning with the welcome emails. Welcome my lords First, we have the traditional welcome email, where you thank visitors for joining your company newsletter, and pace expectations for what’s to come You only have one chance to make A really good first impression.

And if your introduction to a new prospect isn’t memorable, any other emails you send won’t be, either. You need to aim for originality. There’s a reason Derek Sivers’ order confirmation email got viral: nobody had ever written an email like it before. He told a silly little story about the product was packed and shipped, and that was it. So, write in a fun, humorous way like you would a friend or colleague. That means no corporate language. You are funny, right? Hey tell us a joke Next, your email design should be simple. If you have multiple products, make it easy for new subscribers to browse by preference. Think, the fewer the clicks, the better. And the second type of welcome email is the curation email Let’s have a small quiz: What does the following albums have in common? One by The Beatles, The Immaculate Collection by Madonna and Gold: Greatest Hits by Abba.

They’re some of the best-selling albums of all-time. Want to know why? Because people love curated content. It doesn’t matter whether it’s music— or, in our case, physical products— because people love buying the best of the best. And that’s why the curation email is so popular. Here’s an example from Huckberry. Curation is effective but it allows recipients to choose what they want to learn more about. But there’s another reason why it works well: It allows email marketers to segment recipients based on interest. Imagine if you’re running an online furniture store and your newsletter curates the best furniture under the following categories: Such as Seating, Lighting and Tables So, if you’re using tagging with an email marketing service like Infusionsoft, and one recipient always clicks a link to, say, seating, you can begin scoring that prospect based on their click activity. Over time, if you only email promotional campaigns related to seating, that prospect is more likely to become a customer AND remain on your list due to the relevance of your offers.

The third type of welcome email you should be sending is the engagement email Back in the golden age of direct response marketing, copywriter Gary Halbert was famous for attaching dollar bills, Japanese yens, and even Mexican pesos to his sales letters. Why? Because he needed to get his prospects’ attention. With the average office worker receiving as many as 122 emails per day, you need to get recipients engaging with your emails if you want to stand out in their inboxes. Brooklinen encourages engagement by offering free shipping in one of their newsletters. Brooklinen knows shipping is a common reason for cart abandonment and overcome it by giving recipients a chance to activate free shipping themselves. This is really smart. Mailing campaigns like that not only encourages engagement; it builds a two-way relationship between Brooklinen and their customers. Whether you’re offering free shipping like Brooklinen or inviting recipients to start a free trial of your product, like we do, here, at Sleeknote, you need to give readers a reason to engage with your campaigns.

And remember: make it memorable. The last of the welcome emails is the referral email. You might also be asking for referrals on your thank you page (and if you’re not, you should be), but are you doing it in your email campaigns, too? Bombas are a perfect illustration of asking for referrals. They not only instruct their recipients what they need to do, step-by-step; they ask in a fun, humorous way. You might not be able to offer free socks (few can), but everyone has enough money in their marketing budget to offer an Internet high five at the very least.

Who can say no to that? That was the welcome email, so now it is time to have a look at the trigger emails Trigger emails are triggered by a particular action taken by a recipient (such as visiting a product pricing page). So what do you offer in your trigger emails? One of the most effective incentives to use in trigger emails are discounts. Especially if you send abandoned cart emails. In fact, 54% of shoppers are likely to purchase abandoned products if they’re offered again at a discounted price.

But be careful. There’s a fine balance between offering too many or too little discounts. Do it often enough and you’ll lose money. Do it too little and your customers might turn to a competitor. The silver lining here is to offer discounts to customers who are already engaging with your marketing campaigns. Once people have purchased from you, an order confirmation email is triggered, right? So now, while you can use the order confirmation email to offer additional discounts or encourage engagement, it’s also a way of pacing your customer’s expectations. Your order confirmation email is prime email real estate. Well, it’s nothing but a digital receipt, but it’s also a way of reminding shoppers that buying from you—rather than a competitor— was the right decision. Pretty great decision, ehh? The next trigger email on this list is the upsell/cross sell email.

Upselling is when you invite a prospect to purchase a more expensive item. And cross-selling is when you recommend a related or complementary product. It’s why McDonald’s asks, “Do you want fries with that?” And of course you do Here’s a great example from Dollar Shave Club who sends this email after a customer has made an order. It’s a great way to earn more money for your business while giving value to your customers. And the final type of email you should be sending is the retention email.

We all know it costs 5-25 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. So, how do you reduce churn and improve customer loyalty in the long-term? By sending emails that remind your audience they’re still important to you. It’s happened to me and I bet it’s happened to you, too. You invest your time, attention, and energy in growing your email list only to have a percentage of your readers unsubscribe. Send them an email telling them that you miss them and that you have a special offer for them if they return. OR… You can ask them why they left. If you don’t ask Say it with me now You don’t get. If you don’t regularly ask your readers or customers what they’re looking for, how can you expect to give them what they want? Surveying your audience doesn’t just offer valuable insights into their goals, desires and pain points; it gives you an opportunity to improve your email marketing process.

Asking what your customers want works for many companies, and it can work for you, too And lastly, you should always And I mean always! send a thank you email. We don’t say thank you enough. Thank you Thanking your audience goes beyond thanking them for subscribing to your newsletter or making a purchase. It’s about recognizing they’re the reason why you’re in business. Companies like Brooklinen will write from the heart and really thank their customers for helping make what they do possible. It’s easy to get caught up in everyday business life. But sometimes, it really pays off to thank your customers. How can you give back to the people who’ve made you are your company what it is today? Alright, that was all from me today. If you want more examples and tips on the emails I’ve told you about today, you can click this link and read much more. And don’t forget to hit the subscribe button… I’ll be back soon with more email marketing goodies for you.